The US had hit North Korea with eight 340 kt. bombs, obliterating the North Korean capital along with three other cities and four military targets. The government of North Korea had been essentially wiped out and so had the vast majority of their military leadership, command and communication systems. They were a rudderless country and military at this point.
Within seconds of the American nuclear bombs going off, the search radars all across China began to light up. They were watching to see if any US aircraft or cruise missiles were headed towards them. The Spirit of California moved towards their target, methodically and deliberately crossing into Chinese airspace undetected. They had already carried out six deep-strike missions in Russia and one in North Korea; now they were testing the limits of the Chinese air defense.
It took them roughly fifty minutes to reach their target after the nuclear bombs hit Korea. They were trying to time the two strikes to happen relatively close to each other. Approaching the city at what was now 1040 in the morning, the pilots could see below that the metropolis below was full of life and people were early in the work day. A sinking feeling sat in the pit of their stomachs as the weight of what was about to happen started to sit on them.
When their bomber neared the drop point, they armed their nuclear bomb and prepared to release it. Without allowing themselves too much time to think, they opened their bomb bay doors and quickly released their single bomb. They waited to turn the aircraft until the doors registered as closed, ensuring their stealth capability was still intact. Then they began to turn and head back for home, having delivered America’s response to the Chinese for providing the North Koreans with a MIRV-capable ICBM.
It took the B-83 bomb less than two minutes to fall to 3,000 feet, at which point, the arming mechanism registered that it was at the programmed altitude, sending the signal to detonate. The 1.2 Megaton warhead exploded over the city center of Shenyang, China, the largest city in northern China, with a population of 6.3 million people. The blast wave from the explosion reached out to 10.8 miles from the epicenter, instantly killing 4.87 million people and leaving millions more terribly injured. The firestorm the explosion created would wreak havoc on the surrounding boroughs and countryside, destroying one of China’s most important industrial centers.
Pure Shock
The ruling members of China hurried to the command bunker for yet another emergency meeting. They knew the Americans would most likely launch a pre-emptive attack, but what they could not anticipate was Pak Lee being dumb enough to launch his nuclear missiles at the Americans and South Koreans. They had warned him to keep the war conventional-a conventional war could have ground on for weeks (if not months) and with China and Russia’s assistance, it would have led to a satisfactory outcome.
Once two nuclear missiles detonated over South Korea, the Chinese immediately knew the Americans would respond with an overwhelming nuclear response. The members of the CMC had just started the discussion of how to handle the situation when a report came in that the DPRK had launched the ten DongFeng missiles they had given them the year before and the missiles were on trajectories that would take them to the US mainland. Legitimate panic set in.
President Xi slammed his fist on the table and let out a long stream of obscenities that was so angry and vulgar that several men in the room actually blushed. “That was a terrible idea to give them those missiles!” he finally yelled, when he had calmed down enough to speak in non-curse words. “The fools have just doomed us all! The Americans will know we gave them advanced missiles, and if one of them destroys an American city, they will take their retribution on us!” He aimed most of his shouting at the generals who had advocated to give the Koreans the missiles.
General Xu, the commander of the Chinese Air Force, calmly declared, “We have to get our defense ready for an American attack. If one of those missiles does hit an American city, the U.S. will either go after our nuclear missile capability, or they will look to hit one of our cities in retaliation. We must alert our nuclear forces immediately.”
Everyone in the room looked at the President for direction.
General Kuang, the Defense Minister, spoke up before anyone else could respond to General Xu. “No,” he asserted. “We need to keep our alert level where it is. We need to assure the Americans that China is not a part of the Korean’s attack. That we have not coordinated with them or encouraged them to use these terrible weapons. We need the Americans to understand that we had no part in this or they will retaliate against us with even greater furor.”
The President sighed loudly and rubbed his temples. “This is not how things were supposed to happen,” he thought. “The Koreans were supposed to bog down American, South Korean, and Japanese Forces so we could carry out our annexation of Formosa.”
President Xi finally looked up at his military leaders. “Here is what’s going to happen. We are going to inform the Americans that we are not coordinating a nuclear strike with the Koreans. We have no intentions of using nuclear weapons against America or anyone else, just as Russia has insisted with their ongoing war with NATO. Second, if, one of those ICBMs does hit the US and an American city is wiped out, we will not respond to an American counterstrike unless it is a disproportionate response. If they lose one city and they choose to hit one of ours, we will let it stand and not retaliate. We can use it as a propaganda tool, but we will not use that as the pretext for a nuclear war, one we would undoubtedly lose.”
“The Americans still have ballistic missile submarines and enough nuclear missiles to wipe our country out. We can only win a war against America if we keep it conventional. If it goes nuclear, then no one wins, and all of this will have been for nothing. This drastically hurts us, but it does not derail our current plans. Does everyone understand?” he said looking at his military leaders with a gaze that seemed to reach through their very souls.
The men in the room just nodded.
Mourn with Those Who Mourn
The President’s Chief of Staff had just finished working on Gate’s speech with the Communications Director and Press Secretary as they prepared to present it to the boss. The press was pushing for a comment, and wanted to know when and if the President would be making an address to the nation. It had been nearly four hours since the city of Oakland and most of San Francisco had been destroyed. Over a million people had been killed or injured in the blast, and nine other cities had almost been nuked as well. The public was in a panic, and the media was not doing anything to help the matter.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average had fallen nearly 10 % in the final forty minutes of trading before it was closed to prevent a possible run on the market. When the government began to evacuate Washington DC, the news media immediately went to the air, informing the country that a nuclear attack against the capital and potentially other cities was underway. People began to flee several of the major cities as fast as they could. No one knew for certain which cities had been targeted or when the nuclear missiles might arrive. Then, new reports came of several explosions occurring in the sky. Military advisors spoke out through various news networks, informing everyone that these were most likely the vaunted missile interceptors, destroying the incoming nuclear missiles.